The 5th Women's Futsal World Tournament  5th place playoff
Sun. 14 December 2014 Kickoff 15:30 Playing Time 20minutes
Palacio de los Deportes (San Jose/Costa Rica)

Japan Women's Futsal National Team   1-2 (1st 1-0, 2nd 0-2)  Guatemala Women's Futsal National Team

Scores
12min　 FUJITA Yasuka (Japan)
33min　 Goal against (Guatemala)
38min　 Goal against (Guatemala)

Starters
GK: SATO Mayo
FP: SAKATA Mutsumi, KATO Saori, NAKAJIMA Shiori, SONODA Mizuki

Substitutes
GK: YAMAMOTO Ayaka
FP: HARUYAMA Ai, NAKANO Emi, SEKINADA Minako, FUJITA Yasuka, KOIDE Natsumi, YOKOYAMA Junko, KICHIBAYASHI Chikage, HOTTA Eriko

Match Report

Japan women’s futsal national team played the fifth-place match against Guatemala in the fifth Women’s Futsal Tournament.

The match kicked off at 15:30. Japan started the game with Sato Mayo, Nakajima Shiori, Sakata Mutsumi, Kato Saori, and Sonoda Mizuki. After three minutes, at the beginning of the match, Nakajima, who reacted to a throw-in from the opponent’s goalkeeper, headed the ball to Sakata. Sakata passed it to Sonoda, and Kato, who ran in front of the goal, took a shot, only for it to be saved by the goalkeeper. In the 12th minute, Nakajima intercepted the ball from an opponent’s mistake, and dribbled up. Fujita, who ran towards the goal, received a pass from Nakajima and struck the opener. Despite Japan’s ambition for an additional goal, the game went into the second half at 1-0.

After 28 minutes, Japan earned a free kick, due to the fact that Sakata was knocked over to the left of the goal. Nakajima passed the ball to the side and Kichibayashi Chikage struck a shot, but it was saved superbly by the opponent’s goalkeeper. In the 33rd minute, Guatemala dribbled up through the left wing and fired in a shot. Although the ball once bounced against the goalpost, the opponent moved up and scored a goal, levelling the game. As Japan was eager to build their lead, the players threw everything into attack. However, after 38 minutes, while Japan focused on the attack, the ball was stolen and Guatemala tapped the ball in the unguarded goal. Despite Japan’s relentless ambition for goals, they could not find the back of the net. Guatemala won the game 2-1. Japan ended up in 6th place in the tournament.

Many people, including Japanese, who live locally, came to support the team today.The final and the third-place playoff of the Women's Futsal World Tournament will be held tomorrow. The Japan women’s national futsal team will fly back home in order to get ready for a friendly in Kobe on 20 December.

Comments

ARIHARA Masaaki, Head Coach
Although we lead the game most of the time, we couldn’t finish from many of our opportunities. We threw everything into attack towards the end of the game, because we aimed at winning the game within 40 minutes, not using overtime. The opponent’s defensive line was much higher than we expected and we had to change our formation, adding the power to move forward. However, it felt as if the goal was far away today. Many supporters were there again today, which encouraged us a lot. I hoped we could show our appreciation by finishing the tournament with a victory, but I feel regret for not being able to do so. We’d like to prepare ourselves, learning from this tournament, so that we can show our new playing style at a coming friendly in Kobe. We all look forward to playing in Kobe. Please come and join us at the stadium.

NAKAJIMA Shiori (Burela Pescados Ruben/Spain)
Although we struck the opener in the fifth-place match against Guatemala, the game was turned around and we lost. I think we played our style more than the previous game against Brazil, creating many opportunities, but we just couldn’t find the back of the net. We all feel regret and frustration. I realised the toughness in playing internationally. Japan has been participating in the Women’s Futsal Tournament every year and it was the fifth one this year. Every year we make progress. In this year’s tournament we won against one of the strongest team, Russia, which we never have before. I believe it was a big step for Japan women’s national futsal team. Having said that, there is clearly some level difference between strong teams in the world and us. We need to practice harder everyday to improve ourselves. It’s essential to think what we can do to improve, learning from the experience in this tournament. I’m proud of being a member of this team. Thank you for your support.

SATO Mayo (MEMBER OF THE GANG)
We finished our tournament today, and I accept our result seriously: we ended up in 6th place. As we learned what worked against international-strength teams and what we had to do to improve, I’d like to work harder both as an individual and a team. I’m really grateful for the supporters who came from Japan to Costa Rica, local Japanese people, the supporters in Japan, all the related people to the national team, the staff, and our families. Thank you for your support.

Schedule

*The schedule is subject to change without notice upon the team conditioning, the weather, etc.

International Friendly Match

Sat. 20 December 2014　Green Arena Kobe/Hyogo
Japan Women's Futsal National Team  vs Chinese Taipei Women's Futsal National Team
Kickoff  15:00(plan)
More information